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Mullvad VPN

Flat €5/mo VPN, no accounts, no deals

verified 2026-07-02Clients OSS (GPL)
Arete score
5.0 / 5
Autonomy5
Return5
Efficiency5
Transparency5
ἀρετή “AH-reh-tay” — excellence: a thing being good at what it’s for. Mean of the four principle scores. How we score →

Plain outbound link — no affiliate parameters, no tracking redirects.

✓ Verified by a human against the public rubric on 2026-07-02 · see the evidence ↓

Why it's listed

Written by the ValueIndex editor, from the verification pass of 2026-07-02.

Mullvad is what a trustworthy VPN looks like: €5/month flat since 2009, numbered accounts with no email required, cash accepted by post, and it removed recurring subscriptions and port forwarding because they created privacy risks — sacrificing revenue for principle. Independently audited, repeatedly. The transparency bar every privacy product should be measured against.

Facts

License
Clients OSS (GPL)
Pricing
€5/mo flat since 2009
Funding model
Bootstrapped
Self-hostable
No
Replaces
NordVPN, ExpressVPN
Verification
Verified against the rubric on 2026-07-02

Evidence notes

Numbered accounts, cash accepted; killed recurring subs & port forwarding for privacy; audited

Recorded during the rubric pass — every score must carry evidence a stranger could re-check.

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Spotted a problem — trackers added, dark patterns, abandonment? Report a violation. Scores change when evidence does.